Report: Florida housing market shows steady improvements

byKelly McCabeAugust 9, 2017

In the second quarter of 2017, the Florida housing market had more closed sales, higher median prices and more pending sales, according to Florida Realtors.

The median sales price for a single family home in Florida in the second quarter of 2017 reached $240,000 — up a substantial 9.1 percent from the same period in 2016. The median price of a condo-townhouse in the most recent quarter was $175,000, up 7.4 percent during the same time last year.

“Florida’s economy and jobs outlook continued to grow in the second quarter of this year,” 2017 Florida Realtors President Maria Wells said in a statement. “State officials just reported that among all states, Florida had the third-fastest annual private-sector job growth rate in the nation. Meanwhile, the state’s unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in June, better than the U.S. unemployment rate of 4.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

The state's condo-townhouse market had nearly 33,000 closed sales in the second quarter of this year, up 3 percent from the same period in 2016, likely a result of an increase in traditional sales and a decrease in short sales. Traditional sales of condo-townhouses and single-family homes increased 7.7 percent and and 9.8 percent, respectively.

Pending sales also showed moderate rises year over year in the second quarter of 2017, increasing 1.4 percent for single-family homes and 2.7 percent for condo-townhouses.